Cracked
by thecivilunrest
Summary: His love for her had not yet cracked. Finnick/Annie


_Cracked_

Sometimes it's hard, loving a mad girl.

It's especially hard on him when she can't remember who he is, or what he was doing in her home. "Why are you here?" she would ask. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Finnick," he would awnser, begging her to remember what he once was to her, what they once were to each other, even though now all of that is gone.

Once upon a time, in a land by the sea, there was a little boy named Finnick, and a little girl named Annie. That was how his mother would always start the story, anyway, whenever Finnick would ask his mother to tell Annie their story to make her remember when she wouldn't listen to him.

His mother told this story to Annie many times, because his mother was a nurse and her kind face would often calm Annie down. Finnick had to give her the details, and make the story up himself, but he wanted to make sure that Annie knew.

_There once was a little boy named Finnick and a little girl named Annie_, his mother would say.

_This little boy and this little girl had houses next to each other all of their lives. They would see each other every day at least once a day, even though their ages, school friends, and even fathers would try and keep them apart. _

_Their fathers were at one time best friends, which was why they had built their homes next to one another. But one day Annie's father became bitter and angry because Finnick's father was making more money, and refused to speak to his neighbors anymore. He also forbid his two daughters and wife to talk to their neighbors either. _

_Finnick, however, refused to let Annie go. Even from when they were young Finnick loved her and although he couldn't express his love for her in the right way (he would often pull her hair and throw seagull poop on her) he didn't want anything to keep them from being friends or more. Annie did not want this either, and so began the scheming. _

_So late at night, when neither of their of their parents were watching they would go and play. They would go to the beach and gather seashells and seaweed and all of the lovely things from the sea that they knew that they could take with them. _

_As Finnick and Annie grew older, their love grew with them changing along with their bodies. _

_Finnick suddenly became very beautiful, and Annie did not. Of course she was beautiful to him, but she was just a girl of twelve while he was a dashing young man of fourteen. But he promised her that he would always love her no matter what he said to the other girls that were closer to his age, or older. No matter what would happen he would always love her. _

_To seal his promise he found a perfect and unbroken sand dollar and strung a thin leather cord that he had found through one of the openings and held it out to her. "This means that I will love you forever, no matter what happens, no matter how our lives go. As long as you wear this, and it continues being as perfect as it is now, things will be all right for us," Finnick declared. _

_Annie's eyes shone when he tied the cord around her neck. "I will wear it forever," she proclamied. "It will never crack, shatter, or tear. Just like my love for you." _

_That was the first night that they kissed. _

_The year of his fourteenth summer, though, something else was going to rip them apart. The Hunger Games. Now The Hunger Games ruined many things and many lives, but Finnick had been training for The Hunger Games practically his whole life was not afraid. When his name was chosen from the reaping he felt proud and honored. If he won, he would be glorified beyond measure. If he did not, he would die. He was ready for that. Or so he thought. _

_That night, after everyone in his home went to bed for an unrestful slumber he snuck out to the beach where the two of them normally met. He had to see Annie one last time, and her father would never allow for them to see each other publicly. _

_Annie was there, like always. She was curled up in a ball, though, with tears streaming down her face. "Why did it have to be you?" she asked him, not even bothering to stop the tears. _

_"If it wasn't me then it would be someone else. Would you want that?" _

_"Yes," she said fierecly. "Anyone but you." _

_"I will win the Games for you," he promised. _

_And he did. _

_When he came home the first thing Annie did was give him a big hug. She was thirteen by then, and had grown into herself. _

_They had five very happy years together. _

_Until The Hunger Games struck again. This time he was too old for them, he was twenty and she was eighteen. She was the perfect age. _

_And so she went, wearing the sand dollar on the chain all the while. Until she saw her partner get decapitated. _

_When she saw this, along with all of the hysteria she had witnessed. _

_She had cracked, right along with her sand dollar necklace. _

He always stopped the story there, however, because he could not bear to tell his mother anymore, or to have to have Annie hear any more either.

It wasn't so much the pain of the story, although there was pleanty of that.

Because it was true. The two of them had been in love from such a young age that living without each other had begun to look impossible to him. They had become so intertwined, so connected, that Finnick sometimes felt like they could read each others thoughts. Even though fate had decreed that they should be apart, first by their fathers disagreeing, and then by The Hunger Games, Finnick had decided to ignore the facts and could not live without her.

But by ignoring fate Finnick had forced the 'Fates' to resort to drastic measures. They had driven Annie mad.

Finnick didn't know what it was that had made Annie's mind crack, but it was true. Crack it did.

When Annie came home after she had won the Games he was going to ask her to marry him. He had everything worked out in his mind, and he had already bought a pearl engagement ring, along with a gold plated steel sand dollar, one that would never crack.

He had ignored the signs of Annie's early madness, though, and that had blown up in his face. As soon as she was done with the Victory Tour he had gone to her house to propose to her. That was the first time that she had asked who he was.

He cried, as much as he hated to admit it, but he did cry. He couldn't help it. The beautiful woman that he had loved was gone, and in her place was someone that did not even remember his name.

The Peacekeepers had wanted to take her to an insane asylum, but he would not allow that. He used his devilishly good looks on the female peacekeepers, and his status as victor on the male ones so that they could not take her farther away from him than she already was.

In Victor's Village he had made sure that they had houses close by, and he would visit her every day.

Sometimes, when fate was feeling particularly cruel, she would remember who he was, and they would have as long as her sanity would last. Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, and once even a day, one joyful day that he actually felt hope that maybe her madness was cured.

But every time she would remember who he was she would soon forget again, and then the hallucinations would start.

Those were of things that he did not know, things he could not see or even remember. He had no way of knowing what was going on, of what was happening inside her mind.

One day she had began hallucinating for days, and eventually his resolved cracked and he couldn't take it any longer. He had to leave. That was the first time that he had gone to the Capitol to be a mentor.

In the Capitol things were very different than they were at home. It was colorful there, bright and so different from home that it comforted him at first.

He found women there too, lots of women. He began losing himself in these women, hoping that possibly one of them could make him forget Annie.

They couldn't.

Finnick tried again and again to love someone that would love him back but to no avail. There was no shortage of women here, though, and so he had a new one almost every week. He never came back to them, and he could never love them in any way but the physical. His heart still belonged to Annie.

He stayed home eventually, though, because the pain of being away from her cut into him deeper and deeper as time passed. He still saw her often, her beauty still evident even though the look in her eyes was wilder now, and her hair was often unkempt.

But once again came The Hunger Games. Maybe this time something would be different. The Hunger Games always changed their lives before, maybe it would once again. It did.

Finnick got chosen, and so did Annie. He did not want her to go, though, because if she did she would go completely savage. He knew this, and so did all of the other tributes. Then old Mags stepped in, saving Finnick from the ultimate heartbreak.

Losing Annie in more ways than just in her mind.

On the day of the interview he said that the poem was for his one true love in the Capitol, but it wasn't. The only thing that he could think of to give to her, even though she wouldn't know that they poem was for her.

The entire time he recites it he thinks of her wide blue eyes, flowing brown hair, and smile that used to be able to warm up any room. The one smile that was just for him.

When he heard Annie's screams coming from the mockingjay in the arena he thought he would go insane as well. These weren't her normal screams, but the screams of someone being tortured. Hers were the only screams that he heard. He did not know if this was a good or bad thing.

From that point on he is determined to defeat the capital, even more into the rebel cause than he already was. They are willing to hurt the one thing that he loves the most in the world, and that is unacceptable.

He wonders if they could even fix her madness, and why they didn't to begin with. This thought hurts, and so he vows to get Annie out of District Four.

When they escape from the arena he begs, _begs_ Plutarch Heavensbee and Haymitch to turn back to District Four and get her out of there as soon as possible. They deny him, and make the very good point that if he is alive they will use her as bait.

But what if using her as bait makes her even more mad still? Then what?

When Finnick talks to Katniss, who is still trying to live with the pain of missing her Peeta, he tells her what Plutarch and Haymitch have told him. She asks him the same thing, once again and hammers the point home.

He is going to save Annie from the clutches of the Capitol if it is the last thing that he does.

Because his love for her had not yet cracked.

It never will.


End file.
